Dail Report: The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has described as "baloney", the "suggestion" of the Irish Medical Organisation that doctors could be rostered for duty from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. five days a week.
Criticising the IMO in the dispute over the introduction of the working time directive, he said the organisation would not agree the meaning of working time but he appealed for doctors to engage in dialogue with the Department of Health.
His comments came as he faced a barrage of criticism from the Opposition over the health service. He admitted that the accident and emergency service was "fairly disastrous" in some areas, as the Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny said that the Taoiseach was in office for 2,568 days and "there have been seven years of plenty and seven years of waste".
He claimed that the Minister for Health was being "strangled" by the Department of Finance, while the Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, asserted that the real Minister for Health was the Minister for Finance Mr McCreevy.
Sinn Féin's Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caolaín said the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, could not "Macbeth-like, wash his hands of ultimate responsibility".
On the last Leaders' questions session before the summer recess, all Opposition leaders concentrated on the health service. Mr Kenny outlined the numbers of patients waiting on trolleys in Dublin hospitals, which would be exacerbated by the requirement of the working time directive, which from August 1st will limit the hours non-consultant hospital doctors can work, to 58 a week or 13 a day.
And he listed a number of hospital units that remained idle including the €96 million wing of the James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown, and the €26 million A & E unit in Cork which had been lying idle for seven months.
Mr Rabbitte said there were hospital units to the value of €416 million boarded up because they could not be commissioned.
He asked the Taoiseach: "Do you see the embarrassment of your own backbenchers?
"When will you do something about the chronic state of the health services?"
Defending the health services, Mr Ahern said patients found the hospital service excellent but some A & E departments were "fairly disastrous". It was a "question of changing some of the systems".
The Taoiseach stated that over 30 per cent more patients currently received treatment and there were far better cancer, heart surgery and maternity services. He insisted that every unit would be opened.
Mr Ahern said he did not wish to enter an industrial dispute with any sector of the medical service but "it is not reasonable for any wing of the hospital service to suggest that we can run our hospitals between nine and five o'clock Monday to Friday".
Mr Ahern said the IMO would not agree to local implementation groups.
"If they engaged with the Minister for Health we can resolve this so that from August 1st it will apply to doctors in training."
When Mr Ó Caolaín called on the Taoiseach to stand up to the consultants. Mr Ahern said that the suggestion that doctors could be rostered from nine to five was "baloney.
"It is baloney and it is not acceptable. These are the issues we need to address."
